Previews

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena

The Combat:The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay totally nailed stealth and melee combat in the first person, maybe better than in any other game. You'll once again take the silent but deadly approach, sneaking around and using your Eyeshine to see what goes bump in the dark. The whole "screen-turning-blue when you can't be seen" effect is such a simple, effective way to handle stealth that it's a wonder we don't see other games take similar approaches.

Combat is still plenty of fun, especially in close quarters. The two key gameplay elements are comboing movement with attacks to modify the different kinds of strikes you dish out, and timing your attacks to counter enemies and initiate scripted killing moves. It's great to see the huge variety of instant-kill attacks. Here are some of my favorites:

The Poke from Behind: Sneak up behind an enemy, grab the top of his head, and then stick a hairpin right in his ear. Yowch!

Can I Have This Dance?: Using the curvy new Ulak blades, lift up an opponent's arms, exposing his armpit, and then deliver a killing blow to the vitals. Fancy!

The Barber: Face off against an enemy too dumb to run away. Place the edge of your combat knife under his chin and then saw away at the soft flesh of his throat. Messy!

I can't wait to try these out on my friends!

Just Plain Riddickulous

The Dialogue: Okay, I was psyched about the voice work, but some of these lines are just painful to listen to.

Little Girl: "Can you help, Riddick?"Riddick: "I could. But when I help people, they end up dead."